Good morning.

Welcome to the special meeting of the Board of Clark County Commissioners for Monday, May 18th.

We'll begin the public forum today with the first public comment period.

Anyone wishing to speak, please come forward at this time.

You may speak for up to three minutes.

State your name for the record.

Seeing no one, I'll close the public hearing and we'll move on to the agenda.

The second item on the agenda is the approval of the agenda.

Is there a motion for approval?

We'll approve of the agenda.

There's a motion for approval, please cast your vote.

Turn it over to Manager Schiller for the public hearing items.

Commissioners, your next item is conduct a public hearing on the fiscal year two thousand twenty-seven tentative budget for Clark County.

Um in addition to that, before I get started, I wanted to take a minute to thank um Jennifer Green to my left, our director and Chris Wardlaw, our manager over budget and finance, as well as the entire team.

Also included, you'll see that Metro only requested 30 positions for a total of three million dollars.

Um so what's not included today is an actual approval of supplemental positions, but we did include our recommendations in the final budget that we're proposing.

We also looked at department vacancies to see if they were if there were vacancies that had been vacant for a number of months or maybe even years and try to repurpose those vacancies as well.

We also looked for cost offsets.

So a good example is if we're contracting for services and the departments asking to add positions, you have a cost offset where you're not going to have the contracted service anymore.

And so here is a summary of what our recommendations are.

We'll bring those back to you at the next board meeting in June for your consideration.

But this is what's included in your budget today.

And so the county general fund, non-general fund, Clark County Detention Center, and then including Metro for a total of $7.1 million.

But for just general fund, the general fund impact is only close to $5.5 million because that's going to include your general fund, detention center, and metro request.

And this is just revenue, your revenues comparison.

And so we didn't make any updates to your general fund revenues.

Just as a follow-up, I wanted to make sure that you knew that we have been monitoring consolidated tax revenue.

It's difficult to monitor because remember, last year they had changed the timing.

So when you look at a month over month, it looks higher than it really is because they shortened the time period last year and now they've gone back to the historical way of cutting off the distributions.

And so that being said, we smoothed out fiscal year 25 compared to fiscal year 2026, and it looks like C tax revenue is trending at about two to two and a half percent increase, which is better than decreasing.

It's just not still not keeping up with the increase in expenditures.

This next slide is comparing again what we filed on April 15th as far as expenditures compared to what we're proposing in fiscal year 27 for the final budget.

And so these small increases are largely due to the supplemental positions that we're recommending.

Again, this just ensures we have budgetary budgetary authority with Department of Taxation, but we'll bring those positions back to you in June to authorize the actual creation of the positions.

One thing that may look strange is when you look at other general expense at increase four million dollars.

This is really just an accounting standard issue where we used to record $4 million as a transfer to an internal service fund that now needs to be recorded as a charge for service.

And so the transfers out the net 0.2 is the difference between the metro and detention transfer and then this reclass of the $4 million to other.

So from what you saw really immaterial difference, only $5.5 million.

Again, we were trying we're trying to contain the growth of expenditures and the general fund as much as possible.

Again, generate as much savings as we can to roll into the next year until revenues catch up to the growth and expenditures.

Um that we've presented to you today.

And so an overall increase of 4.2%.

In our last hearing, we had property tax revenue.

When we got the fine received the final numbers from Department of Taxation, those numbers actually came in lower than what we had originally projected.

So we filed the final tentative budget on April 15th rather than a 7% increase in property taxes.

It was only 5.2.

Again, the same as the same for C tax revenue, like I said, it kind of really just washed because we looked at Department of Taxation's final numbers for C tax revenue, and they were also a little higher than we originally estimated.

Like I said, we are trending when we smooth out FY25 at 2.5% rather than the 0.5% we were thinking.

And my last follow-up in this area is licenses and permits.

Remember, there was a lot of concern on what is happening with the number of permits.

So a large portion when you look dollar-wise, the decrease is largely due to franchise fee revenue, and that's in gas and electricity.

And so we'll continue to monitor that throughout FY27.

It can be volatile, obviously, but right now we're conservatively budgeting for that trend to continue into FY27.

The actual number of permits that we presented to you, it was alarming that the number of permits had decreased so much, and that is largely due to a decrease in the TNC driver permits.

So your Ubers and Lyfts, they don't have the same material impact dollar wise because those permits are relatively immaterial.

There's just a large number of them.

But again, we do have plan to come back to you with an update on revenues as well as those other economic indicators that we've been presenting.

So overall, a 4.2% increase in revenue is what we're estimating.

And our expenditures, tentative budget compared to final budget.

Again, we're budgeting our contractual obligations in addition to that 5.5 million in the additional supplemental positions for a total increase of 5.6%.

And this is just an update to the slide that we had in the last budget hearing.

We are in a structural deficit.

A structural deficit means that it occurs when your operating your operating expenditures exceed your recurring operating revenues.

And so we're really filling that gap by bringing in funding from our reserves from our capital projects funds.

And so that's unsustainable.

Eventually, that funding will run out.

And so again, the goal here is to just contain expenditures as much as we can and then allow revenues to continue to catch up to expenditure growth.

May I ask a question?

So let me ask this, Jessica.

So being that the tax structure was messy last year, right?

As the state changed to their new system.

Do we anticipate in the past we've always had about a six percent, four to six percent on the C tax growth?

Um and I I know I've been asking taxation through NACO.

What categories have changed so we could try and figure that out.

But do we anticipate that being we were at a half a percent growth now with the two and a half percent that this will catch up a little bit faster, or what's the timing do you think?

Is it gonna take us a couple years?

Is it gonna take us a year, depending on what's happening?

I think it's anyone's guess right now, but that is the anticipation is that we it'll you know, if it is a slower recovery over the next couple of years, all we can really do outside of cost containment is really just all we can do right now, or our recommendation is just contain costs as much as we can until we start seeing that revenue really recover and catch up to expenditures.

And we also have the same questions with Department of Taxation.

That's another issue is how they report taxable sales and by those categories.

That timing is changed also.

So it's just difficult to compare month to month.

By the end of the year, we'll have a really good comparison because then we'll have a full year of data for 25 and 26.

We would have a better answer for you.

Well, and just for the board's edification on NACO, I'm kind of involved in this because when they changed the system, one of the categories that stuck out, and I'll get the numbers wrong, Jessica, but you'll remember is sports memorabilia.

They it was we always seen I don't know, 34 million dollars or something, and the state reported 750,000.

And I said, what the heck?

People are still buying golden night shirts, Raider shirts, all of those things.

And they said, Oh no, you didn't have a Super Bowl, so that's why it dropped off.

And so we've been at NACO for all the counties trying to figure out what those categories actually mean because we were getting those that sports memorabilia dollars long before the Super Bowl came, and we probably did just as well.

Then so I I that's why I'm curious is because we just need to know how they're calculating it so we could dig into the problem.

I I know nobody wants to care about taxes like I do, but I'm trying to figure out the problem.

And Department of Taxation has been hosting some meetings for all of the local jurisdictions to participate in and just hear updates from their system conversion, and a big piece of that is that reporting.

And again, I just I believe that it's going to take a full 12 months to really be able to compare apples to apples.

Um, and then we we will give you another update this summer once we have those numbers.

Um, and so you know, it at 59.1 million dollar structural deficit.

Um, our recommendation is to go into cost containment beginning July 1st.

And this is kind of our toolbox again that we've implemented in prior years, whether it was the Great Recession or the pandemic.

And you know, limiting discretionary costs, that's really low-hanging fruit.

Reallocating resources, what that means is, you know, like I said, if you have existing vacant positions, you know, repurposing those positions or reorganizing your structure, your um your department, um, extending or you know, trying to leverage contracted services differently to expand that resource.

In addition, deferring future capital projects is an option, and you'll see that by not going not funding future, not funding future projects, and then we could also defer current capital projects.

Um, and then lastly, reducing fund balance.

And so these are all things that we could do pretty readily easily.

Um I think where we are, if you were to look at this, we're kind of halfway through deferring current capital projects.

And what I mean by that is you know, maybe not funding every maintenance project or replacement, trying to extend our useful lives of our assets, and it it really is just kicking the can until next year, but again, in anticipation of revenues growing and catching up with expenditure growth.

Our fund balance, we did not reduce general fund fund balance.

We are currently budgeted at 10%, which I think is fairly conservative.

Um, and then lastly, what becomes more dire as you go through this toolbox is reducing our long-term liability reserves.

That would be for litigation reserves, um, workers' comp, insurance, pension and health retiree health reserves.

And so we are not recommending that today.

And then lastly, we would reduce discretionary services and reducing mandated services.

That's not in our recommendation today, but that's kind of the progression of cost containment historically.

And no, our recommended measures are again limiting supplemental positions.

So you saw that you'll see that at the next um budget or board of county commissioners meeting where we're really limiting the number of positions to what are mandated or needed for the health and safety of the community.

We're also um requesting to limit departments to a 10% vacancy.

So if they need to fill a position, um, if they're below 10%, they would need to submit justification to the county manager's office, and then limiting discretionary costs.

Um this really isn't material, but it really sets the tone across the organization, and we're not saying to eliminate these costs, but really um containing them for training, travel, community and employee engagement, and even printing and postage.

And on the I've received a lot of questions from directors on the community and employee engagement, and so we are really collaborating with, we have different types of outreach activities that happen from the commission's office, from the commission office from parks and recreation, as well as from human resources.

And so we're getting all three of those groups together and laying out what all of these activities are, ensuring that we have the budget available, um, and that there's not too much duplication.

We know there will be some, but trying to limit that to as much as possible.

Again, our recommendation is to defer capital replacements that don't pose a health or safety risk.

So, again, trying to extend the useful life of our assets, and then lastly, deferring new general fund capital projects and programs.

Um, real property management has quite a bit in the pipeline.

We have some major projects coming between the um new coroner's office, we have two new rec centers, we have some park projects, we also have the opioid treatment center, and so really just focusing on those projects for now over the next year until we get to next year's capital allocation and we see how revenues really perform and what budgetary savings we have.

Again, the more budgetary savings we have will help fund some of our basic capital.

And so, lastly, our next steps is we would file the budget on June 1st.

We will bring back to you our supplemental and capital recommendations on June 2nd, and then we will also update provide you with the budget update on December 15th, which was requested at our last hearing.

And that concludes my presentation unless there's any questions.

Thank you.

Are there any questions from the board?

Uh this is a public hearing.

Anyone wishing to speak, we're on item number three.

We're on item number three.

Please come forward at this time.

Seeing no one, I'll close the public hearing.

Commissioners, your next item is to conduct a public hearing on the fiscal year 2027 tentative budget for the Clark County Redevelopment Agency.

Thank you.

Again, we I just a little bit of housekeeping.

We will be filing a letter that we received from Department of Taxation that reported that our tentative budget that was filed for the redevelopment agency was in compliance with state statute.

So this presentation is a little bit different from last year's because we've actually added additional districts that are captured on the roll this year.

And so the redevelopment agency was created in 2002, and the boundaries included Paradise Town, Spring Valley, Sunrise, Winchester, and Whitney, or in total.

It was only Sunrise Manor, Winchester, and Paradise were created established on July 1st, 2003.

So that was fiscal year 2004.

And then over the last couple of years, those districts have been expanded.

And so we've provided those, and we've provided you with the district numbers because it's crossing over the same town districts as the original.

And then with the decline in property assessed values, you see that decline in fiscal year following in the bottom being in fiscal year 2013.

And so when you go into fiscal year 2027, this large increase is primarily due to the additional districts that were added recently.

And to give you an idea here, this if you look at the light blue bar, that's your base year compared to the large the dark, the light blue is the base year, and the dark blue is the increment.

And so you're seeing a pretty significant increase in FY27.

Again, this is assessed valuation, not property tax dollars.

And so now you have a much larger increment in assessed valuation in the redevelopment agency.

And so when you look at each town, we provided the difference again, light blue being the base year in assessed value compared to the increment.

And so overall, you have a combined base value of 692 million.

And then when you look at the combined increment, you're now up to 68.5 million.

And again, this is just broken it down by town by dis redevelopment area district.

Again, this is assessed valuation.

What I think is probably more important for you is the actual property tax revenue.

And so this breaks down for you the actual tax revenue that's generated in each by RDA district.

So the original would be district 341, 411, and 471.

And that's making up the large majority of the property tax revenue.

Your incremental property tax revenue totals to about 271,000 in additional tax revenue in FY27.

And this actually kind of should be the case for an RDA.

So you start the RDA with a lower base value.

And the idea is that then the RDA is doing a lot of work in that area.

We're reinvesting, and then as those tax dollars generate, they're coming to the RDA to then continue to be reinvested.

And so overall you can see that we had a beginning fund balance of $50.3 million dollars.

Additional property tax revenue that we're forecasting, $22.4 million with some insignificant revenue from interest income.

And then for a total resources of $73 million.

So that's including your beginning fund balance.

Again, we're appropriating $65.7 million.

Again, tomorrow or when this week you have a an RDA presentation on the actual detailed budget on specific projects.

But what we did do is we budgeted a 10% ending fund balance similar to the general fund as requested last year.

And that concludes my presentation for the RDA unless there's any questions.

Thank you.

Are there any questions related to the RDA?

Seeing none, I'll open the public hearing.

Anyone wishing to speak on item number four, please come forward at this time.

Seeing no one, I'll close the public hearing.

Commissioners, we can now move to the business section of your agenda.

Item five is to adopt the final budget for Clark County, the unincorporated towns and special districts, the University Medical Center, and the Clark County Water Reclamation District for the fiscal year 2027 and direct staff to transmit the approved documents to the state of Nevada taxation as prescribed by law.

Mr.

Chair, I move that we adopt the items below and also transmit uh the documents to the state Nevada Department of Taxation.

Thank you.

There's a motion, please cast your vote.

Motion passes.

Commissioners, your last business item is to adopt the final budget for the Clark County Redevelopment Agency for the fiscal year 2027 and direct staff to transmit the approved documents to the State of Nevada Department of Taxation as prescribed by law.

Mr.

Chair, I move forward adoption and we transmit the documents to the state of Nevada Department of Taxation.

Thank you.

There's a motion, please cast your vote.

That motion passes.

This is the final time set aside for public comment.

Anyone wishing to speak, please come forward at this time.

Seeing no one, I will close the public comment period and adjourn today's meeting.

Thank you.